Power Outage!

dseag2

dseag2

Dallas, TX
Location
Dallas, TX
We had a horrible storm come through our area of Dallas this afternoon. The winds were really strong. It took lots of tree branches off, and we have been without power for 5 hours now. Our power provider originally said power would be back on at 5:30pm. Now they are saying they don't have an estimate. We usually never get afternoon storms here at this time of year. Crazy weather, as I mentioned in another thread.

I always try to look at the bright side. I was going to stock up on fresh food tomorrow, so we won't lose that much. Also, it is 74 degrees outside right now, so with the windows open the temperature is humid but tolerable. It was beautiful outside at 5pm, so we walked around the neighborhood.

I drove around in my car to charge my phone, and I'm now using it as a hotspot to access Wifi. I will be off the forum soon. Wish us luck!
 

Any loss of power is tough if it lasts for long

Ten days is very long. We were down for five days a few years ago. It was in Jan and cold. Downed trees kept everyone trapped in their homes. I kept the house warm burning wood in the fireplace and cooking meals in cast iron pots hanging on a chain in the fireplace. Every time I went out to bring in more firewood, I had to be careful about the tree limbs that were still falling because of the heavy buildup of ice.
It was not a fun time and I know that it would not be any better if it happened diring during the heat of summer. I hope they restore your quickly.
Hang in there.
 
dseag2 said:
We had a horrible storm come through our area of Dallas this afternoon. The winds were really strong. It took lots of tree branches off, and we have been without power for 5 hours now. Our power provider originally said power would be back on at 5:30pm. Now they are saying they don't have an estimate. We usually never get afternoon storms here at this time of year. Crazy weather, as I mentioned in another thread.

I always try to look at the bright side. I was going to stock up on fresh food tomorrow, so we won't lose that much. Also, it is 74 degrees outside right now, so with the windows open the temperature is humid but tolerable. It was beautiful outside at 5pm, so we walked around the neighborhood.

I drove around in my car to charge my phone, and I'm now using it as a hotspot to access Wifi. I will be off the forum soon. Wish us luck!
Click to expand...
Sounds like you have things well in hand. Hang in there.
 
dseag2 said:
We had a horrible storm come through our area of Dallas this afternoon. The winds were really strong. It took lots of tree branches off, and we have been without power for 5 hours now. Our power provider originally said power would be back on at 5:30pm. Now they are saying they don't have an estimate. We usually never get afternoon storms here at this time of year. Crazy weather, as I mentioned in another thread.

I always try to look at the bright side. I was going to stock up on fresh food tomorrow, so we won't lose that much. Also, it is 74 degrees outside right now, so with the windows open the temperature is humid but tolerable. It was beautiful outside at 5pm, so we walked around the neighborhood.

I drove around in my car to charge my phone, and I'm now using it as a hotspot to access Wifi. I will be off the forum soon. Wish us luck!
Click to expand...
Hope your power is restored soon. We will worry about you. 😊
 
Thanks, everyone, for your concerns and responses. We're in a bit of a strange situation right now. We got full power back at around 3am this morning. Everything was working and we were thrilled. I was watching TV at around 3:30 this afternoon and it just shut off. We also received warning messages on both A/C thermostats and neither is working except for the fans. Both of our microwaves will turn on but neither is heating. Our refrigerator is still fully functional, as is our washing machine, but our dryer won't come on. All our lights and outlets are working.

I've never had only "partial" use of electricity so we're thinking our electric provider is doing "brownouts", which provide lower voltage but not a complete loss of electricity. There was a brief moment this evening where the lights got brighter and we felt cool air. The TV also came on for a brief period. I've never been through something like this before. I called our electric provider to report an outage and received a recorded message indicating they expect power to be restored at our address by 3:30am. Maybe that means full power?

I spent the day cleaning up all the debris outside our house and throwing away food. We went grocery shopping today, so I'm glad the fridge is still working. Again, I'm looking at the bright side. I have two fans in the bedroom. The temp will drop into the 70s this evening. I'm just happy we have partial power. Many in Dallas still don't, and there was lots of destruction. There is another thunderstorm outside our window as I type this, so fingers crossed!

P.S. I'm going to post the situation in a new thread to see if anyone has ever experienced this.
 
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Wow, sorry you're going through this, @dseag2 !
Did you check your fuses, just in case any of them blew? That was the first thought that came to my mind. I'm glad the temp will be in the 70s this evening. Hope you get all your electricity back soon!
 
palides2021 said:
Wow, sorry you're going through this, @dseag2 !
Did you check your fuses, just in case any of them blew? That was the first thought that came to my mind. I'm glad the temp will be in the 70s this evening. Hope you get all your electricity back soon!
Click to expand...
Yes, several times, but thank you for the recommendation!

Actually, a gentleman from the our electric provider stopped by the house. He tested our meter and there was nothing showing. He asked if we had a box that it connected to. It is actually on the street above us, so they are aware of our partial outage and hopefully it will be resolved. I hope these guys get paid well for working at 10pm on Memorial Day!
 
My power was off for 3 hours during that time here in Houston. I stayed in bed and did not open the fridge or freezer. So thankful when it came on.. About 30 years ago we had an ice storm come through in Louisiana and I noticed that folks were driving around my house. in fact it was about 50 when I started noticing it. Finally someone rang the doorbell and said they were trying to see if I had power. My husband was the manager of the power company at that time. They thought that if anyone had power, it would be me. Sorry no. No power here. I had to wait like everybody else. No special treatment here for me. They spread the word and the line stopped along with the phone calls.
 
Very glad to see your updates you've posted here, @dseag2

That is definitely a different experience, with the partial power situation you were describing! Yet, certainly is better than none. you had lights and refrig power at one point, which is helpful.
Still, I hope the entire thing is resolved soon.

Good job, focusing yourself on the bright sides.
 
It was a long night. A nice guy from the service provider knocked on our door after 10pm. He had received the message from his company that we had an outage. He wanted to go into our courtyard and check out the meter. My hubby was running around like a chicken with no head, so I went outside and spoke to the guy and told him what was happening. I unlocked the gate and let him in. The meter wasn't displaying anything even though we had lights, etc. He said whatever box needed to be repaired was not in our courtyard but was in the street above us. He said he was finished and would head up the street to do the repairs, so I locked the gate. I thanked him for working so late, especially on Labor Day.

He showed up at our house again with another guy at 3am, needing to get into our courtyard. My hubby met him at the door (I was dead to the world) and let him in. While they were working, they turned off the electricity completely. My hubby was smart enough to put all the refrigerated food we'd just bought into the freezer.

Bottom line, complete power was restored at around 5am and no appliances were damaged from the lack of voltage. That was my biggest concern. God bless him, my hubby had to be at work at 8:30am this morning and I got to sleep in. I felt bad for him, but it was truly a team effort.
 

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